by Jill Sanders
“Damn it,” the officer said as he climbed out of the cruiser. “Did you have to hit him?”
“I didn’t touch the man,” Trey said, holding his hands up as his nose continued to bleed all over his white shirt.
“Trey didn’t hit him,” she jumped in. “He hit Trey.” She pointed to his uncle.
By now there were two officers there. One of them had Trey’s uncle and was holding him up.
“The boy attacked me,” his uncle was saying.
“That’s not—” she started, but Trey glanced at her and shook his head.
“It’s okay, they know,” he said softly.
She sighed and nodded. Trey reached into his pocket. “Why don’t you head in? It’s freezing out here.” He gave her the keys to the door. “I’ll handle this.”
She decided it was easier to retreat inside than argue. And she could grab some tissue to help stop Trey’s nosebleed. Besides, she hated dealing with cops. She’d had enough of them over the last four years to last a lifetime.
* * *
Trey stood in the cold and ran over the last five minutes with Mike Taters, the chief of police. The man had been around long before Trey had, and he knew that the chances of Trey starting a fight with his uncle were slim. He was guaranteed not to be put in cuffs.
His uncle, however, was cuffed and shoved in the back of the police cruiser.
“We’ll call and get his truck towed,” Mike added, writing something down in his book. “You’d better get that looked at.” He nodded to his nose. “It might be broken.”
“It’s not.” He sighed. “I know the difference.” He dabbed his nose with the towel Dylan had rushed out to him.
“Looks like he ruined your shirt.” Mike nodded to his chest.
Trey glanced down and cursed. “I’ve got a meeting in an hour.”
Mike chuckled as he walked away. “You boys always did look funny in suits anyway.”
He tried not to slam the front door as he walked in. Dylan was on the phone as he walked by. Stepping into his office, he threw his jacket on the sofa and pulled off his ruined shirt. His nose had stopped bleeding moments ago, so he was clear to pull on the backup shirt he always kept in the closet.
When he heard a funny sound, he turned around to see Dylan standing in the doorway. Her dark eyebrows were raised as her eyes scanned over his chest. When he started to put the shirt on, she rushed forward.
“Don’t.” She reached out and stopped him.
He couldn’t help but smile. “Why? Seeing me half-naked is making you swoon?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No.” She pointed to a spot on his chest. “I was just stopping you from ruining a second shirt.”
He followed her gaze to where her fingertip was touching his chest. There, on his skin, was a dark blob of blood that would have soaked into his backup shirt.
“But, if you’re so vain as to think that every woman who sees you without a shirt would swoon at your feet…” She turned on her heels and waltzed out of the room. “Who swoons anymore, anyway?” she threw over her shoulder as he chuckled and wiped the blood from his skin.
Slipping on the new shirt, he wiped the rest of the blood from his face with water from the small bar area in his office. He checked to make sure his nose had stopped bleeding before cleaning his face. He texted his brothers to let them know what had happened and called his mother as well. He finished up with his family just as Dylan buzzed his meeting in and for the next hour, he listened to them drone on and on about the benefits of the latest computer system for locating oil and mineral deposits. He and his brothers had already agreed to purchase the new system.
He ended one meeting and had less than five minutes before his next one. This meeting, however, was a lot different. Local boys flooded their conference room as he began going over the slides of their new school facility.
The groundbreaking was set for some time in the spring, but Trey was having a hard time waiting that long. Just looking at the graphics and drawings for the Thurston McGowan Flathead Drilling Training Center got him excited. More than one hundred acres of prime Montana land was all theirs for this project.
There were going to be three large buildings for housing employees and families along with seven larger buildings for classrooms. Future plans included a daycare and even a general store.
If all went well, there was plenty of space around town for new home sites, which they hoped would be a big plus, since they were looking at some pretty big contracts from in-state colleges that wanted to expand environmental studies at their facilities.
His father had put it in motion and all they needed to do was see it through. All three of them were determined to do so, even as their uncle fought it.
Tyler had received a call a week prior from a lawyer out of Helena. The man claimed to represent their uncle in the case against them. The man claimed that their uncle had proof that their father’s patents on his drilling and extracting methods were the sole property of Carl McGowan.
Less than an hour later, after Tyler faxed the man all the legal documents where Carl had signed away his rights to the patents for cold hard cash that he had spent years ago, the lawyer quickly withdrew his claims and they had not heard from him since. But, if Trey knew anything about his uncle, they hadn’t heard the last of it yet.
He spent almost two hours going over every detail of what he and his brothers were starting to think of as the ‘A-Team.’ They were a bunch of men who were the best of the best at what they did. They knew all the ins and outs of the oil refining business and knew what equipment was needed, how much space, how much power, and most important, what would be needed to protect from any incidents and accidents.
He had hoped his brothers would be available for the meeting, but with Tyler at home enjoying the new baby and Trent filling in for Tyler in South Dakota at a meeting with suppliers, he was in charge. A scary thought.
When the conference room was empty, he sat alone looking over the proposed changes on his laptop screen. His stomach growled, and he desperately wished for a cup of coffee. There were a few more hours of work to do before he headed home to a frozen meal and more work. Maybe he’d swing by his mother’s place for a home-cooked meal instead.
“Coffee?”
He’d forgotten that he wasn’t alone. Glancing up, he smiled at Dylan as she walked in with a cup in her hands. “I didn’t know how you like it, so I kept it black.”
“Just the way I need it now.” He took the mug from her.
“What’s that?” She nodded to the projected screen on the wall.
He had forgotten to shut the thing off, so everything he’d been doing was showing up on the screen.
“Our proposed site changes for the school.” He tilted his head. Seeing it bigger helped him make his mind up about what he’d been toiling over for the past ten minutes on the smaller screen.
“What school?” she asked, walking closer to the wall and crossing her arms in front of herself as she gave the image all of her attention.
He took a large gulp of coffee and went to stand next to her.
“The Thurston McGowan Flathead Drilling Training Center.” He smiled every time he said it out loud.
She narrowed her eyes at him as she glanced his way. “The…”
“Thurston McGowan Flathead Drilling Training Center.” He chuckled. “It’s a mouthful. Basically, it’s a drilling school and an environmental study site.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Why are you opening something like this?” She motioned to the screen. “I thought you guys were in business to make money drilling for oil yourselves.”
“Well, we are, right now. But this was my father’s dream before he died.” He motioned towards the screen.
“A school to teach everyone else how to do what you do?” He heard the sarcasm in her voice and chuckled.
“It sounds crazy, we know.” He shifted slightly, turning towards her. “Our father was… a visionary.” He decided he liked the w
ord and nodded.
“Like Disney?” she asked.
He frowned. “No, more like Nikola Tesla.”
She tilted her head. “The guy who makes the cars?” Her eyes were glued to his.
“Okay, a serious gap in your education,” he murmured as he turned towards the whiteboard and picked up a marker. He drew out the plans as his father had laid them out so many years ago.
“See?” He stood back and let her take it all in.
Once she was done looking at it, she turned to him. “So, in essence, you’re getting paid for others to le teach them everything you know, while they help you reinvent the industry so that once they’re done, you have the leading edge in methods?”
He nodded. “Okay, you just redeemed yourself for the Nikola Tesla remark.”
She smiled and slowly turned and lifted the hem of her shirt. He got excited at the amount of skin she was showing him, but then he laughed.
There, in delicate print along her ribs, was a tattoo. He leaned closer to read the fine print.
‘Be alone. That is when ideas are born.’
He smiled, remembering the quote. “Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born, Nikola Tesla.” He smiled. “One of my favorite quotes from him. You had me there.” He wanted to reach out and run his finger over the quote but stepped back. “Why this quote?” he asked her, suddenly wishing he knew a lot more about the woman standing before him.
“Because, ‘I don’t think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men,’ was a little too long.” She smiled as she laid her shirt hem back in place.
He laughed, really laughed. “There’s more to you than first meets the eye.”
“I have my secrets.” She shrugged. “I didn’t always want to be a waitress, you know.” She walked over and glanced down at his computer screen. “Your calculations are wrong here.” She pointed to a section of the drawings.
He frowned. “What?” He moved over and glanced at what she was looking at. He didn’t see anything wrong at first, but then she showed him the correct math while he looked over her shoulder.
For the next hour, he was schooled by their new secretary and wondered if they should have hired her as chief engineer of the project instead. He’d thought she was sexy as hell before, but knowing that there was a big brain underneath those dark locks of hers made her even more so.
He couldn’t deny his attraction for her anymore and wondered what the hell he was going to do about it.
Chapter 5
It felt so good to be using her brain again. Challenging problems, focusing on tasks. Even if, for the time being, they were simple things like answering phones and sending contracts or emails.
When she’d spotted a simple error in Trey’s calculations, he’d listened to her, actually listened, and had even taken her advice. It had been years since a man had given her respect when it came to technical things.
When five o’clock rolled around, she felt a little anxious and excited to end her first day of work. Wishing for the following day to arrive too soon could make her look pathetic. Still, it was hard not to want to dive into something else exciting.
Trey had packed up his laptop and started shutting off lights. She followed him around to see what was involved with closing the office down each day.
“Normally, we’re out of here on time, but there are nights Tyler has to work late.” He showed her how to set the alarm, gave her the code and, to her surprise, handed her a set of keys. “We’re usually here at eight sharp. On Fridays, we pick up donuts and coffee at Belle’s Bakery. We have an account with them, so if you want to take that task on…”
“Sure.” She nodded eagerly.
“Wonderful. We also have an account at Grangers Market for office items and the grocery store for milk, coffee, kitchen supplies, and anything else we need. I’ll make sure to let them know to add you to the list.”
She nodded and thought about where his company was going. It was an exciting field, on the verge of new technology, something she’d always dreamed of diving into further.
While her brother had been caught up in sports and being popular, Dylan had buried her head in the books. Anything and everything science was her calling. She loved spending hours with test tubes and beakers or scanning the microscope until her eyes turned fuzzy.
It was one of the reasons she’d gone dateless until her senior year when she’d gone in to get her first tattoo and met Jax. She’d hidden her brain from him and their relationship had grown. From then on, she’d found that if you played dumb, there was always a line of men waiting.
Now, however, with Trey, she didn’t feel like she had to hide that part of herself. She’d first spoken out about his calculation mistake without thinking.
Before the accident, she’d been looking at attending Stanford, but with her parents’ death, her dreams had died as well.
Even though being a glorified secretary for the McGowans was a step up from waitress at a dive bar, it was a far cry from her dreams. Still, it was a step and one that would hopefully pay enough to get them out of the small hotel.
She watched Trey lock up and then glanced around. Her shoulders slumped when her brother’s truck wasn’t in sight.
“He’s late,” Trey said beside her.
“Yeah.” She pulled her jacket closer to her and cursed the fact that the coat wasn’t thicker. She had hoped, but in her heart, she’d known he’d either be late or forget all about her and hit the bar instead. “It’s not that far…”
“Stop right there.” He held up his hand. “You may not know this yet, but Kristen, my sister-in-law, said the same thing once. She was kidnapped on the way back to the same hotel.” He shook his head. “Come on, I’ll drive you there myself. Tomorrow, you can check out the sedan we use for corporate business.”
She followed him. “What happened to her?”
He glanced over as he pulled open her door. “Kirsten?” She nodded. “We found her. The bastard had stashed her in a cave.” He nodded towards the hills that surrounded the small town. Currently, it was too dark to see anything other than soft snow falling. “We found her just in time.”
“That’s good.” She relaxed into his car and waited until he got behind the wheel. “Who kidnapped her?”
Trey’s eyes turned dark.
“Dennis Rodgers. You’ll want to watch out for that one.” He started the car.
“Watch out… Isn’t he rotting in jail by now?” she asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“No proof other than Kirsten’s shoe, which Tyler found in the back of Dennis’ truck. He claims Tyler planted it. He denied anything to do with Kristen’s kidnapping, but confessed to a bunch of other stuff, like siphoning funds from his employer. He ended up going free shortly after though, since NewField’s, his ex-employer, whom he’d swindled out of thousands of dollars, burned down, and the proof they had against him went up in smoke.” He motioned to an empty lot. “Shortly after, he was walking around town like nothing happened. Other than losing his job and his wife in a messy divorce.”
“It must be hard on Kristen and Tyler,” she said as the snow started falling more heavily. It was going to be a cold night and she hated that the hotel room’s heater couldn’t be set past seventy-one.
“Yeah, but we upped our security.” He shrugged. “There isn’t much more we can do but keep an eye out for our own.” He pulled into the parking lot and stopped in front of her door. She wondered briefly if he knew which room was theirs. “Which is why, until you can get a car of your own, you’ll have full access to the corporate car. We need to know you can get to and from places safely, especially in this weather.”
“I’m not in any danger?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head. “Everything’s been quiet since…” She could tell that he caught himself.
“Since?”
He sighed and leaned back in the seat. “Okay, there was an incident with Add
y’s Jeep, but we’re pretty sure that was Darla, another one you’ll want to watch out for. She works down at the Wet Spot.” He motioned down the street. “Anyway, she’s been quiet for a while too. Ever since Tyler and Kristen’s wedding, things have been quiet.”
“Too quiet?” she added.
He glanced at her. “I’m sure they just moved on. It’s not like the entire town of Haven has it out for us.” He smiled. “We’ve just learned to be a little more… cautious.”
She nodded. “Okay, sounds good.” She reached for the door handle, but he stopped her.
“I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning. A quarter till eight.”
She smiled. “I’ll be here.”
“Night.” He reached across and slid open her door. “Stay warm, it’s supposed to get cold tonight.”
“It’s Montana in January,” she said dryly. “It’s always cold.”
He laughed as she got out of the car.
* * *
It was so nice having a set schedule, knowing exactly where you should be and who you were meeting, having all your paperwork where it belonged. Not to mention seeing Dylan every day. They fell into a nice pattern, working around one another, with one another. He had even asked her into his office to help with some calculations.
Sure, he could have used the computer or Googled how to solve the problems, but he enjoyed watching her do the math herself. Not to mention that for almost an entire hour after she’d leave his office, he could still smell her sexy perfume in the air.
Each day she came into the office and he tried to figure out how to keep her there. He had to admit, she’d been right about everything he’d asked her about. Each calculation she’d done for him was spot on. And even more impressive, she had been quick at solving each problem.
“You were a total geek in school,” he said, looking over her shoulder as she helped him calculate how much pipe they needed for a certain job. He had a little cheat sheet he’d made up to help with calculations, but at the moment, he couldn’t find it.
She smiled over her shoulder at him. “Don’t hold it against me.”